Fic: I Keep on Loving You

[country_who]

Title: I Keep on Loving You
Author: country_who
Genre: Character Study
Characters/Parings: Ten2/Rose
Word Count: ~1140
Summary: The Doctor learns how to gain fate, through Rose, when their daughter gets married.
Author's Note: Another addition to the my fics inspired by country music. This was inspired by. "I Keep on Loving You," Reba McEntire. 

Faith is the belief in something more than what you know...

The walls of the church were surrounding Rose and the Doctor at their daughter’s wedding. The Doctor squirmed uncomfortably and ran his fingers through his gray peppered hair.

“Rose, what if…” the Doctor stared, bouncing on the souls of his feet. 

“Doctor, I promise Donna isn’t marrying an alien,” Rose told him, trying to hide her amusement, as she reached up and fixed his hair a bit. 

“I wasn’t gonna say that,” the Doctor defended, while he undid the work Rose just did and paced between the rows of pews. Donna was getting dressed and the groom stood at the other end of the room talking to his best man. “I already scanned him when he proposed, but still…Donna might not…”

“Yes, she does.”

“You don’t even know what I was gonna say.”

Rose raised her eyebrow at him and ignored the statement. “Doctor, when you look at the two of us what do you see?”

The Doctor thought for a moment, “Is this a trick question?”

“Yep.”

“I see love then.”

The Doctor crossed his arms stubbornly, let’s see her twist that one.

“Right.”

Oh.

“What does that mean?” the Doctor asked. 

“Think back Doctor,” Rose guided him down to one of the pews and sat down in front of him, taking his hands. “When we first met, back when you had two hearts, the bluest eyes and the biggest ears-”

“Oi!”

“-My mum hated you, but that didn’t stop anything, and when we stood on that beach and you told me you loved me…” her voice drifted a bit in memory. “How did that make you feel?”

The Doctor stared down at his feet. 

“Doctor, I know you’re worried, but you don’t have to be. They’re gonna be just fine. And sure, they’re gonna fight, and make up and threaten to kill each other and pull each other back from the brink.”

“You think?”

“I know.”

“How?”

“Look at him Doctor, think about Donna,” Rose instructed, pressing his hands into his lap and kissing his quickly on the lips, as one of Donna’s friends showed up and asked for Rose to help with the bride’s dress.

Watching his wife go, the Doctor let her words sink in. He’d seen the way Donna stared at the man she was marrying and the way he stared back. How was it all possible? How could he see himself in the man trying to take his little girl away?

***

Rose was beaming at him, her smile infecting him, as he swept her off her feet and caught her in a hug. The Doctor couldn’t count how many times they had met like that. From times where he was gone for months on a Torchwood assignments or Rose just missed having him in her arms, and they never got old. 

It made him feel like he was the luckiest man in all of existence. 

***

Tears poured down Rose’s face, as he limped towards her. His own eyes were burning from a mixture of sweat, tears, and worst of all blood. She gently guided him away from the smoldering remains of the outside bunker that had been his lab and onto a wooden bench, while they waited for the help that promised to be there soon. She held him while he slipped between consciousness and unconsciousness, covering the blood dripping from his head with her handkerchief to stop the flow. 

It made him feel like he was the safest man in all the universes.

***

She was dressed in a simple white dress as she approached him down the long aisle between the white lawn chairs of the grassy field. His heart fluttered, and he wanted to run to her, sweep her into his arms and carry her all the way to where ever the future was gonna take them. But somehow, he managed to hold still until she was there. He couldn’t confirm as to whether or not her could recite exactly what the preacher had said that day. Everything passed in a blur until his lips met hers. 

He was never letting go of her. 

***

Rage bubbled from inside him as he stared at Rose. Her own fists were bunched together and her posture was fierce. She would have looked threatening if it wasn’t for the tears betraying her true feelings. She was as hurt by this as he was. He didn’t want to do this, but he felt like her hand no choice. Everything was moving in on him and he couldn’t breathe. He stepped out the door of their home. 

When she let him come back, that was how he knew they would always be okay. 

***

Rose was exhausted, his hand might be broken in several places, but they were fine. She had tugged him up next to her as the nurse cleaned their first born, baby boy, Jack Doc Tyler. Rose accepted their little bundle from the nurse and ran her finger down his cheek, while the Doctor cooed to his softly in his native tongue. Carefully, Rose passed their son into the Doctor’s arms with a whispered, ‘here’s your daddy,’ and a soft kiss on his forehead. 

And, that when he knew they were blessed. 

***

The Doctor curled up next to Rose on their bed. She had fallen asleep ages ago, while he was on the phone with the eldest of their daughters, telling her the best way to handle a Hesphastian Slime Eel His hand intertwined with hers like it had been for the past forty-three years, two months, seven days, twelve hours and six seconds. Wrinkles and gray hairs had managed to change their outer appearances, but on the inside they were still the same. The daft old alien and the girl who ran with him were still there. 

This was a time when it really didn’t need saying. 

***

The Doctor looked up when Rose finally rejoined him on the pew and let took his hand back in hers. He was still surprise by how much relief he felt whenever their touch was regained. 

“You alright now?” Rose asked in a whisper as everyone got settled into place and the organ started playing. 

“Yeah, I think so,” the Doctor replied, staring into her eyes and kissing her deeply.

“Right,” Rose said, pulling back and biting off laughs at his wounded expression. 

“I still love Donna though, and I swear if he hurts her, I know this great prison on one of Mars’ moons, and this guy owes me a favor, so I could always call him up and…”

“You won’t have to.”

“I know,” the Doctor conceded and settled back into his seat for a minute before turning back towards Rose. “I’m supposed to give Donna away aren’t I?”

“Yup.”